Thomas Tid joins the show: AI consciousness, TP-Link’s China connection, trust in hardware security

Three Buddy Problem – Episode 43: Director of the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies Thomas Rid joins the show for a deep-dive into the philosophical and ethical considerations surrounding AI consciousness and anthropomorphism. We dig into the multifaceted implications of AI technology, particularly focusing on data privacy, national security, and the philosophical questions surrounding AI consciousness and rights. Plus, TP-Link under US government investigation and the broader issues of consumer trust in hardware security, the need for regulation and inspectability of technology, and the struggles with patching network devices. Cast: Thomas Rid, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine. Costin Raiu is away this week. 00:00 Introductory banter 00:25 Thomas Rid fills in for Costin 03:46 Anthropic’s “ai welfare” sparks debate 14:27 Should LLMs have feelings and rights? 24:30 Data privacy & the San Francisco AI cabal 42:00 TP-Link routers and Chinese connection 59:00 Appliance patching pains and Verizon DBIR takeaways 1:15:00 FBI wants help finding Salt Typhoon hackers 1:29:00 Shout-outs and LABScon CFP